I'm looking for a synonym for man-made (i.e., not naturally occurring) that doesn't imply it was made by humans. "Fabricated" or "constructed" are the closest I've come, but I'm not very happy with either of them. Does anyone have some other suggestions?

Edit: Thanks for all the great suggestions! To clarify a bit further: what I mean by "natural" would be something like a rock, cliff or mountain, a tree or forest, a stream or natural lake. The word I'm looking for would refer to anything made by some creature, be it a human, animal, ghost or alien.

I'm thinking a rock or canyon are natural occurrences but a bird's nest is manufactured by a bird in that a bunch of twigs didn't fall together, blown about by the wind.
–
Kristina LopezJun 17 '14 at 14:13

I still would not consider a bird's nest artificial (unless it were man-made).
–
oerkelensJun 17 '14 at 14:48

@oerkelens It depends on context. If I were on an alien planet that was unknown to have life, and I found a nest I would certainly report back: "Found evidence of a possible artificial structure."
–
called2voyageJun 17 '14 at 16:59

@oerkelens Imagine a dam built by a beaver. While a dam can happen naturally by coincidence (flotsam building up and blocking off the water or landslide, etc), what do you call it when a beaver makes one intentionally? It's not natural, it was built with intent. It's not man-made...so it's what? artificial works well, as in an artificial dam.
–
DocJun 17 '14 at 20:10

I trust that the OP can look up the words in a dictionary or thesaurus, and providing the definitions here would just be a waste of space. This is an answer to the question, so it does not belong as a comment. Unless you can include supporting references for your suggestion, of course!
–
Kevin WorkmanJun 17 '14 at 14:17

I don't see anywhere in your link that dictates that answers without references should be comments. In fact, I seem to recall a meta discussion suggesting that long-winded explanations and copy-pastes from dictionaries are discouraged!
–
Kevin WorkmanJun 17 '14 at 14:27

1

Kevin Workman, rather than adding references and supporting quotes in comments, edit them into the question. Note, I can't reverse my downvote for lack of references until after you edit the question, due to it getting locked in after 5 minutes.
–
jwpat7Jun 17 '14 at 15:30

1

@ Kevin: From the Help page for How to Answer:Links to external resources are encouraged, but please add context. If in fact there's nothing else to say apart from providing a list of candidate words, that does rather suggest the question should be closed rather than answered (ELU isn't a "human-powered" online thesaurus).
–
FumbleFingersJun 17 '14 at 17:45

Sure? "not designed ... without planning or knowledge of their purpose?"
–
KrisJun 17 '14 at 14:48

I'll go with that. If we found something on Mars that seemed to have been designed, we'd take that as evidence for the existence of intelligent alien life. If we later found that it was the alien equivalent of a wasp nest, for example (and that the aliens were actually no smarter than wasps), we'd probably stop using that word for their "artefacts".
–
FumbleFingersJun 17 '14 at 17:27

That's one sense of design. There is another in common use that describes intricate functional arrangements that involved no intelligence or purpose, such as coral reefs or animal anatomy. We can say that the design on a peacock's tail attracts mates, and that our brains were designed to cope with social interaction, without implying any intelligent artists or engineers. P.S. Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennet use the word in those two senses, respectively.
–
BetaJun 17 '14 at 19:33

Additionally, "evolved" used to mean "something that is the result of some design", until Darwin took it and used it to mean the overall change resulting from selection pressure on a population
–
AJMansfieldJun 18 '14 at 20:00

"Man-made," like "man" and "mankind," has become embroiled in the whole gender-neutral language issue. So it is legitimate to look for variants, especially in contexts where your usage affects how your work is received by its likely audience. I'm sorry that the tone of some of these comments is flippant, because the question deserves a serious answer. Many of the alternatives offered would fit, some obviously better than others in certain contexts. That's the nature of language: there are no true synonyms, and nuances of meaning in similar words make it necessary to think carefully before choosing which to use in a given context.

While this may be true it doesn't answer the question which seeks a word for a non-human fabrication, not simply a gender neutral word for a human fabrication.
–
ChenmunkaAug 12 '14 at 18:38

1

This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post - you can always comment on your own posts, and once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post.
–
TimLymingtonAug 12 '14 at 21:51